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I have 5 friends that work for the goverment and 4 of them will tell you they are under worked and could do their job working 2 days a week. The 5th you can find every Friday morning on the golf course working his ass off and he will tell you so after each hole. I'm not saying all goverment workers are lazy they just do what they are given.
What incentives are they given to work harder and get more done? They might do that when first hired then the other get them in line. LOL
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I work on site at a government site, and I see some of this. There seems to be a correlation between age and amount of shits they give towards their job. They young govies are motivated, hard working, and really trying to make a positive change. Where I work we have a forum where people are constantly posting ideas to save the taxpayer money. They actually care about the taxpayer, because they're taxpayers too.
Now, not all of the older members are lazy and have 'given up,' especially the ones that are division heads or higher. To me, one of the most unfortunate things I see in government is people being forced into positions they don't fit. They slam a round peg in a square hole because of pay brackets, levels, experience, etc. I constantly see non-technical people in technical roles -- and often that is not because of choice, it's because they've been placed there.
A lot of the govies I know are hard workers and want to do a great job and make this country a better place for everyone. Those of us in DC know that the traffic gets a lot lighter Friday, that's just not people being lazy. Many govies work a staggered work schedule where they work either 9 or 10 hour days then get every other or every Friday off. I've worked that schedule before and it's awesome. It seems that working more hours in one day with the promise of others off increases productivity.
That said, I've had tons of govies tell me they prefer to have contractors on staff rather than government employees. Why? Because you can say "I don't like him/her, get him/her out." to the contract lead and that person is gone. Getting rid of a government worker is not that easy. To me they need to change the way government folks are paid. Drive, work ethic, and knowledge should be rewarded more than time served. Make promotions rely less on years of experience and more on how the person has performed in their current role and if they're ready for a bigger challenge. I'm not saying experience isn't valuable, but I think it is inflated in the work place, especially when that is a primary factor.
All of my experience with govies are based on higher level organizations. I'm not sure how state/local employees are, but in my time with DOD, DEA, and DOS I've seen some hard workers.